Paul Gorman

Chelsea Space

Fred Astaire in his Johnson & Johnson Fred Astaire jacket

Curatorial work today on the Lloyd Johnson exhibition (coming to London gallery Chelsea Space in the New Year) was a joy.

By honing the exhibits and focusing on a narrative, Jill and Lloyd Johnson and I introduced an exciting new element: a wall selection of dazzling print artwork for garments from the 70s to the 00s.

Maneouevres such as this should make the whole show pop.

Just a few items are still to arrive (fingers crossed for the gold leather suit from Stephen Linard in Australia).

The collected clothes, print material, artwork, personal items and ephemera are taking shape and conveying Lloyd’s journey in design and music from the 60s to the present day.

From time to time I’ll be reporting on progress and dipping into the exhibits.

Today, my favourite is one of the smallest: a snapshot sent to Lloyd in 1973 by Fred Astaire, wearing one of Lloyd’s designs: a Johnson & Johnson jacket with a Top Hat repeat print.

Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter opens late January 2012. Keep checking the Chelsea Space blog for details.

Ideal Home: Biba beans + biscuit tins + wallpaper by David Bowie + Barney Bubbles

Biba tin of baked beans
Can of Biba own-brand baked beans. Packaging design: Whitmore-Thomas Partnership, 1973.

Chelsea Space director Donald Smith has invited me to contribute items from my design collection to his forthcoming show Ideal Home, which features the work of more than 50 artists and designers spanning 1913 to 2011.

Continue reading Ideal Home: Biba beans + biscuit tins + wallpaper by David Bowie + Barney Bubbles

Pictures from an exhibition: Snap Crackle & Pop at The Lightbox

Snap Crackle & Pop exhibition, The Lightbox gallery, Woking
Johnson & Johnson jacket and shirt, 1973.

These images are from the private view for The Lightbox gallery’s exhibition Snap Crackle & Pop (about British pop art and it’s influence on culture); I contributed exhibits and advice after being approached by BBC TV’s Katherine Higgins (who sure knows her stuff).

This excellent show was opened on Friday by Peter Blake. Among the attendees were John and Molly Dove, Lloyd Johnson, Mike Ross of Ritva and Paul Weller (the subject of the gallery’s current companion exhibition of photographs by Lawrence Watson).

Continue reading Pictures from an exhibition: Snap Crackle & Pop at The Lightbox

Aphasic Disturbance at CHELSEA space

//Layla Curtis: World Political detail, 2001.//

Aphasic Disturbance, the current show at CHELSEA space, is curator Stephen Bury’s response to  “Two types of language and two types of aphasic disturbance”, the 1956 essay by the linguist/literary theorist Roman Jakobson on manifestations of aphasia (the loss of power of expression through speech).

And Bury – now Andrew W. Mellon chief librarian of New York’s Frick Art Reference Library – uses artists’ books and multiples in the main from the collections he built when he was at Chelsea College of Art & Design’s library between 1978 and 2000.

Continue reading Aphasic Disturbance at CHELSEA space